Toeing the Rubber

Daisuke Matsuzaka Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

I really don’t write enough about Daisuke.  He’s truly amazing this year.  Yesterday, he threw 109 pitches over the seven innings he was in there – and he only gave up TWO HITS.  He also struck out six and walked two.  His ERA is 2.80…he has 149 strike outs and two, count them TWO, losses on the season.  He’s become that pitcher, the one we really need him to be.   I’d say the Sox are getting their money’s worth.

He also notched his 18th win this season, fulfilling a personal goal he’d made for himself years ago:
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“Since the moment I turned pro, I wanted to match the win total to the number on my jersey,” Matsuzaka said through his interpreter Masa Hoshino. “It took me 10 years but I finally got there. Now that I got there, it just feels like any other win.”

“Like any other win”…that’s rich and also pretty cool.  No time to focus on individual goals, people.  Just get the wins and get yourselves the playoff spot.

Speaking of which,  as I mentioned before, due to a good and generous friend, I’ll be at the game tonight.  Which means I could see the Sox clinch their playoff spot tonight.  Which would, really, be pretty freaking sweet.  I was at Fenway in 2003 the night that the Sox clinched the Wild Card and it was, truly, one of the most amazing Fenway atmospheres I’ve ever been around.  It won’t have the same intensity this time around, but it’ll still be a good time.  Beckett on the mound gives me much hope that we’ll see good things tonight.

Special shout-out to the baseball gods – those entities who saw fit to give the Yanks a win in their last game at Yankees Stadium, but who were still cool enough to ensure it was the adopted Molina and not Johnny Jackass who will go down in history as having hit the last home run there.  Way to go, gods, way to go.